I noticed it's hitched to a feather star. Which got me wondering if that isn't the purpose behind the striking coloration. If you look at harlequin ghost pipefish, they have striking colorations like this.

Which got me thinking two things: One, are we missing these more because they just aren't being seen? This one was hitched to a feather star that was a poor color choice. But what if it was hiding amongst this?or this?

The seahorse was only found at 13 meters; which seems like pretty easy depth to find seahorses. Now it could have been visiting in shallower-than-normal water, but I'm really curious if it might be one where it's been under the nose of divers and yet completely unnoticed.